Legacy

The original version of Pirates! was released in 1987 for the Commodore 64, finding its way onto the Macintosh in 1988. At the time it received critical acclaim for being one of the first free-roaming open-ended simulators, and was unique in letting the player decide how they wanted to play the game.

This player-driven gameplay formed the blueprint for many other groundbreaking titles, such as Sid Meier's Civilisation and Railroad Tycoon games, and Will Wright's SimCity and The Sims.

Pirates! reached #14 in IGN's 2007 Top 100 Games of All Time feature.

1987

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The original version of Pirates! running on the Commodore 64

1988

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Pirates! was released for the Macintosh in 1988

1993

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An updated version was released for Windows 3.11, featuring 256-colour graphics, MIDI music, and mouse support.